Although metal containers or cans are employed to store a wide variety of products, the packaging of beverages in cans has been particularly well-received by consumers because of the high degree of convenience and mobility. Initially, beverage cans were formed from ferrous metals, but in more recent years aluminum beverage cans have been developed. One of the primary advantages of the aluminum beverage can is that it can be recycled by the consumer after it is used. Recycling of aluminum beverage cans has become a significant factor in the packaging industry, but the vast majority of empty beverage cans are still regarded by most consumers as useless waste products. Thus, many consumers are unwilling to save the substantial numbers of beverage cans required to make recycling economically significant, or they are unwilling to go to the trouble of taking collections of aluminum cans to recycling centers or collection depots.
There is very little that a consumer can do on his or her own with an individual or small number of aluminum cans. Accordingly, most beverage-type cans are discarded, either in the garbage or thoughtlessly as litter at the convenience of the user. Although a new utility for beverage cans undoubtedly will not eliminate the problem of litter, it could have a significant effect if the average consumer had a meaningful use to which a relatively small number of beverage cans could be put without the need for specialized or expensive equipment.
Another area in which the average person feels relatively ineffectual and frustrated is in connection with making a meaningful contribution on an individual basis to the massive and complex energy problem facing the nation and the world. Generally, consumers must simply await technological breakthroughs by large corporations, governmental entities and the like. Other than individual responsibility for conservation, most of the energy related breakthroughs require sophisticated and expensive research. Even in the field of solar energy, the simplest solar energy conversion systems can be expensive enough so as to be beyond the means of many consumers and to give others considerable pause for thought.
While large corporations work on shale oil conversion, coal desulfurization, solar energy conversion, fusion, etc., the average person directs his efforts toward conservation, if any effort is made at all. When faced with the practical limitations of dealing effectively with the energy problem, the average person essentially does nothing.